2024
Gallego for Senate / Research Director
Ruben Gallego outperformed Harris, dominated with Latinos and won Arizona.
NBC News
Shawn Patterson
I run research and AI systems for Democratic campaigns.
Most of the AI work I do starts from the same problem: a team is drowning in source material and raw data, the deadlines are not moving, and the existing tools were not built for the speed or the volume.
On campaigns, I pioneered a video research methodology that brought automated transcription and mass scraping into daily research practice. In Mississippi and Arizona, I ran the first AI-first research department.
Off campaigns, I travel for paintings. Most recent: Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Next: Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Selected work
2023
Presley for Governor / Research and Policy Director
Final election results: 2023 was the closest Mississippi governor's race since 1999.
Mississippi Today
2021–22
DCCC / Regional Research Director
No Democratic president with control of the Senate has ever duplicated the achievement of picking up Senate seats, or even holding steady, in a midterm election. Until now?
The Atlantic
Republicans made modest gains but Democrats performed better than expected as control of the Senate hinged on three races that remained too close to call.
Reuters
2019–21
DSCC / Research Associate
Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats and with them, the U.S. Senate majority, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his last days in office.
AP via PBS NewsHour
2017–18
Manchin for Senate / Tracker and Research Analyst
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has won re-election in West Virginia in the heart of Trump country, dispatching Republican state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
Roll Call
President Donald Trump carried the Mountain State by 42 points in 2016, and a Manchin victory here helps his party narrow its Senate losses in a year when Democrats in Trump states are on defense.
Roll Call
What I'm building
Open-source tools and production systems for research teams that need to move fast without losing the proof chain.
legiscan-mcp
Open source / MCPLegislative data from all 50 states and Congress. Search bills, get full text, track votes, look up legislators, monitor changes.
fec-mcp-server
Open source / MCPFEC campaign finance, queryable. Candidates, donations, spending, Super PAC activity.
fcc-opif-extractor
Open source / FilingsPolitical ad filings pulled out of the FCC public inspection files.
How I work
I help teams map their workflows and assess where the real bottlenecks live. Then I build a prototype that fits their data and follows their analytical methodology: what they treat as important, and how they find it. I stay on through revisions, edge cases, and handoff until the system is sturdy enough for the team to own and maintain.